Hurricane Sandy Christine Quinn Hospital Evacuations

Mayor Bloomberg's $500 Million Repair Fund Will Not Fix Healthcare Inequality

NEW YORK (12-Nov-2012) -- At Mayor Michael Bloomberg's news conference today, he announced a $500 million emergency repair fund for schools and public hospitals.

But this repair fund will not fix the grossly uneven distribution of hospital beds in Manhattan. Please see the attached map used by St. Vincent's Hospital activists that demonstrates the dangerous distribution of hospital beds in Manhattan.

Watch this YouTube video that questions the impact of the Berger Commission hospital closings on our hospital systems, now that they have been damaged by Hurricane Sandy :

"Let us pray that our political leaders and public health commissioners will use this opportunity to really examine and fix the unequal provision of healthcare that Hurricane Sandy has exposed," said Louis Flores.

Can one partially-functioning hospital on back-up generators be deemed "excess capacity" ?

The nurses' union, NYSNA, reported that in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the only functioning hospital below 57th Street in Manhattan was Beth Israel Hospital, which was operating on back-up generators :

In the face of this dangerous situation, North Shore-LIJ CEO Michael Dowling said that he did not want Hurricane Sandy to be used as "justification" to restore a full-service hospital in the Lower West Side of Manhattan ?

How much more insensitive could Mr. Dowling be ? Even in the aftermath of such a devastating natural disaster, North Shore-LIJ is putting its financial interests before our public health.

Healthcare activists demand to know : Why is this acceptable ?

St. Vincent's Hospital

The taboo question that the media is too afraid to ask is : How could St. Vincent's Hospital have helped in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, if Christine Quinn had fought to keep it open ? Will we ever know the true loss to public health that we paid, and continue to pay, after Bill Rudin's luxury condo conversion plan was approved by the New York City Council.

Click here to read the mayor's repair fund news release.

Distribution of Hospital Beds in Manhattan

After St. Vincent's Hospital closed, a Gross Imbalance in the Distribution of Hospital Beds in Manhattan.

How can this be responsible public healthcare policy ? Don't let the congested Lower West Side of Manhattan to be turned into a testing ground for North Shore-LIJ's free-standing first aid clinic experiment. We will pay for this risky experiment with our own lives.

After St. Vincent's Hospital closed, a Gross Imbalance in the Distribution of Hospital Beds in Manhattan

St. Vincent's #OccupyCB2 YouTube Documentary

2011-10-17 Stop the Rezoning of St. Vincent's Hospital Flyer #OccupyCB2

St. Vincent's Medical Malpractice

Eileen Dunn, R.N., tells residents of the Lower West Side of Manhattan that Mayor Michael Bloomberg put the ''knife to the chest'' of St. Vincent's Hospital, and that the mayor is responsible for blocking the restoration of a hospital to the Lower West Side.

Nurse Dunn also said that the municipal governments in Miami, Florida, and Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, either forbid ambulances from taking emergency patients to the kinds of first aid clinics that Lenox Hill plans to build at the O'Toole Building in the West Village, or forbid to license such first aid clinics altogether.

Too bad we can't count on Christine Quinn to do the right thing -- and fight for a full-service hospital to replace St. Vincent's.

Lenox Hill CB2 Meeting

Under the cover of darkness, over a holiday weekend, and in usual opaque fashion, Community Board 2 announced with very short notice a meeting for tomorrow that will keep pushing a first aid clinic to replace St. Vincent's Hospital.

In spite of the Lower West Side's united demand that North Shore-LIJ open a hospital to replace St. Vincent's, Community Board 2 keeps its head buried up the ass of the Rudin Family.

JOINT LANDMARKS & PUBLIC AESTHETICS & ST. VINCENT’S OMNIBUS : Tues., 7/5 @ 6:30 PM– NYU Silver Building, 32 Waverly Pl. Room 208 - 30 Seventh Avenue (O’Toole Building) - Application for façade changes and new entrances. For more information go to: http://bit.ly/iNUSWj

One Year After St. Vincent's Closed, Join Us for a Rally to Demand a New Hospital on April 30

Join us on April 30 at 2 pm - Coalition Rally to Replace St. Vincent's Hospital

April 30 will mark one year after the illegal closing of St. Vincent's Hospital. Join us for a mass rally at 2 p.m. on April 30 to demand that our elected officials and real estate moguls to do the right thing -- and restore a full-service hospital to the Lower West Side of Manhattan.

Meet-up at St. Vincent's for a Rally for a New Village Hospital on April 30

One year after the illegal closing of St. Vincent's Hopsital and one month after the real estate moguls announced their plan, please join the Coalition for a New Village Hospital for a mass rally at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 30.

Let the real estate interests and our elected officials know that we will not accept anything short of a full-service, acute care hospital with level one emergency facilities.

Register to attend the St. Vincent's rally on April 30 on Facebook.

Please share with friends and show your support!

Is ''Westside Healthcare Coalition'' A Lie ?

''West Side Healthcare Coalition is a Lie''

In a sneaky marketing ploy, the backers of the first aid clinic that is being proposed to replace St. Vincent's Hospital has been mailing deceptive brochures to residents of the Lower West Side of Manhattan. The brochures indicate that they are being mailed by a group calling itself the Westside Healthcare Coalition.

A WhoIs search on Network Solutions today showed that the website for the front group is registered to Mehigan, Bellone & Associates, Inc.

According to a press release distributed by angry residents, ''The practice of setting up seemingly grassroots groups to lobby for corporate or political interests is known as astroturfing. The stealth-style marketing technique is banned by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR).''

The real group that has been fighting to restore a hospital to our community is the “Coälition for a New Village Hospital.”

West Side Healthcare Coalition is a Lie

Don't be fooled by the suspicious mailings by the front group calling itself the Westside Healthcare Coalition. They are just as fake as the claims being made by North Shore-LIJ, namely, that the first aid clinic that the Rudin family is proposing to install in the O'Toole Building will be able to treat real medical emergencies. And even in the face of all this deceptive literature that is being sent through the U.S. Postal Service, still no word from City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Sarah Jessica Parker Supports A New Hospital To Replace St. Vincent's

Sarah Jessica Parker endorses a Full-Service Hospital to replace St. Vincent's.

In an interview with The Villager newspaper, Sarah Jessica Parker expressed her support for a full-service hospital to replace St. Vincent's.

''Asked what she thought of the latest post-St. Vincent’s proposal, for an emergency-care facility at the site of the former hospital’s O’Toole building, the Sex and the City star looked skeptical. 'I’m concerned, let’s put it that way,' she said. 'The community needs a hospital — and I think there’s been some clever obfuscation.' As a parent of three young children, she noted, she’s especially concerned about local healthcare. 'I would like to see a proper, functioning [hospital] — not a walk-in,' she stressed. She said she had spoken to Council Speaker Christine Quinn about the issue.''

The interview given by Ms. Parker took place before information came to light about a deceptive political campaign brochure, which was mailed to residents of the Lower West Side by a front group calling itself the ''Westside Healthcare Coalition.'' A WhoIs search on Network Solutions today showed that the website for the front group is registered to Mehigan, Bellone & Associates, Inc. Whereas Ms. Parker was not directly speaking to the example of the campaign brochure as political subterfuge, you can see how she has already been concerned with the pattern of clever obfuscation.

North Shore-LIJ have a vested interest in installing a first aid clinic in the O'Toole Building in the West Village, so that the Rudin Family can build luxury condominiums on the former site of St. Vincent's Hospital. Meanwhile, watch this video about what having a full-service hospital in the Lower West Side means to one parent, whose child was treated by the live-saving emergency room at St. Vincent's Hospital :